Continuity IRA claims attack on RUC barracks IN A statement on November 11 the Continuity IRA claimed responsibility for a booby-trap bomb outside Castlewellan RUC barracks in Co Down on November 1. Two RUC officers were injured in the blast. One of them lost a leg and two fingers. The blast occurred as the RUC moved a traffic cone left outside the barracks. In a statement to newspapers accompanied by a recognised code-word a caller said: "The Continuity IRA states a number of their Volunteers carried out an attack on the British occupation forces in Castlewellan on November 1, as a result of which two of them were badly injured." Contents Westminster oath to British Queen survives AN ATTEMPT by a Labour Party MP to remove the obligation on MPs to swear an oath of allegiance to the British Queen in order to take their seats was defeated in Westminster on November 14. It was Labour MP Kevin McNamara’s second attempt in two years to modify the oath to remove a declaration to "faithfully serve" the British Queen. The proposal was defeated by 19 votes: 148 to 129. The proposal was widely seen as an attempt to accommodate the two Provisional MPs, who have sought access to Westminster facilities without swearing the oath. A Tory MP accused Kevin McNamara of trying to admit "fifth columnists and traitors" into Westminster. True. Contents Irish News in British army recruitment drive YET again the Belfast-based Irish News is playing the role of recruiting sergeant for British Crown Forces. The November 10 issue of that newspaper carried an article on the revamping of the Royal Irish Regiment followed by an advertisement for Irish youth from the force. The ad is aimed at both sexes claiming "the army is an equal opportunity employer", and pleads "Roman Catholics are under represented in the service". As yet there is no criticism of this blatant attempt to attract Irish children to the British killing machine either from the alleged Peace People, the church or nationalist parties. The RIR in its many incarnations (B-Specials, UDR) has been responsible for the deaths of countless nationalists. There are currently over 4,000 members in the RIR. A Crown Forces statement said the RIR would continue to support the Colonial Police (RUC) and emphasised the restructuring represents "military housekeeping" rather than "demilitarisation". Contents Loyalist-Nazi links A LOYALIST death-squad murderer spotted at a British Nazi rally in London in November has put the spotlight back on links between fascists in Britain and loyalist groups. Stephen Irwin (26), who was one of the loyalists released under the Stormont Agreement in July, was spotted at a Remembrance Sunday rally in London along with members of Combat 18. Irwin, who had been jailed for life in 1995 for taking part in the Greysteel massacre two years earlier, was seen giving Nazi-style salutes and shouting racist slogans at the commemoration which was also attended by the British Queen and Prime Minister Tony Blair. Eight people were killed as they sat in the Rising Sun bar in Greysteel, Co Derry in the Halloween massacre which Irwin participated in. The presence of a loyalist killer at a commemoration for British war dead along with British fascists was a reminder to people of the sympathies existing between fascists and loyalists. Meanwhile in reaction to the news, an article in the Belfast newspaper the Irish News of November 23 prominently displayed a quote from the loyalist spokesperson, John White that "the UDA does not want to have anything to do with right-wing groups such as Combat 18". A closer reading showed that buried in the text of the article, White went on to say that the UDA could "not dictate to its membership" what they should be doing, displaying a more easygoing attitude to fascism than that promoted in the Irish News. Contents

Arson attack on Gaelscoil

PRO-BRITISH elements vented their hatred on a children’s Irish language facility in Co Antrim in the final days of November.

The mobile classrooms of Comhaltas Ghaelscoil Dhal Riada in Dunloy became engulfed in flames in the early hours of November 26 when a tyre dowsed in flammable liquid was set alight and placed against the side of the building.

Local people fought off the blaze with fire extinguishers until fire crews arrived.

The school’s offices were gutted in the blaze and a kitchen area and classrooms suffered smoke damage.

The facility is used by both sections of the community including musicians and teenage children.
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‘Let them rot’ says British diplomat

IN CASE anyone should be under the illusion that the imperial attitude to the mere Irish has changed, the words of the current British ambassador to Mexico beg to differ.

That inhabitants of occupied Ireland should be let "rot" and "spread of disease" should be "encouraged" are among the recommendations made in a memo in 1972 by then foreign official Adrian Thorpe.

While resurgent nationalists were successfully repelling Crown Forces in the city of Derry and 0ther parts of the Six Counties, the frustrated Thorpe came up with the classic colonial solution to the problem of the so-called no-go areas.

In his memo, he said "as you know I have always been in favour of encouraging the no-go areas to rot from within; there is no reason why we should not encourage the breakdown of essential services and the spread of disease etc".

The document came to light when lawyer Anthony Harvey alluded to it at the Bloody Sunday inquiry in the third week of November. After reading the document to the Saville team, Harvey remarked: "It shows contempt for human beings at a level which it is difficult to imagine, in particular a contempt for the people of Derry which is difficult to imagine".

Career diplomat Adrian Thorpe has had postings from Beirut to Kuala Lumpur since the mid-sixties. His mindset is indicative of the attitude of a Times journalist, who wrote back to London during the genocidal "famine" in Ireland, that the day could come when the Celt would be as rare a sight in Ireland as the Indian is on the plains of America.

Considering that Thorpe is now Ambassador to Mexico, the Majority of whose inhabitants have Indian blood in their veins, will Thorpe adopt the attitude of "let them rot"? , to our oppressed brothers and sisters in that part of the world?
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Bloody Sunday link to McBride killers

A MEMBER of the three-man panel which ruled that the killers of Peter McBride could remain in the British Army, served as a Captain with the Parachute Regiment in Derry on Bloody Sunday.

Captain Michael Jackson of the regiment’s first battalion was an adjutant in Derry on that fateful day when British troops mowed down 14 innocent civilians.

On November 24, Britain’s Ministers of Defence announced that Scots Guardsmen Mark Wright and James Fisher who served just six years of a life sentence for the 1992 killing of the 18-year-old could continue to serve within the British army.

The ruling comes just days before the anniversary of Peter McBride’s birthday, which is to be marked by an international day of action. Mike Jackson, now a general, rose swiftly through the ranks of the British army. Last year he headed the NATO force in Kosovo, which included McBride’s killers, Wright and Fisher.

The decision has further angered the McBride family, who have demanded a meeting with Britain’s Defence Secretary, Geoff Hoon. Peter McBride Snr said: "we the McBride family demand a meeting with Mr Geoff Hoon face-to-face so he can look us in the eye and tell us how two convicted murderers can be retained in the British Army".

Saying the family seeks justice, not revenge, Mr McBride added: "you just can’t murder somebody and get a pat in the back. We don’t give up, we will never give up – that’s the way out for the British government, if we give up, if we keep quiet".

Meanwhile, British supremo in Occupied Ireland, Peter Mandelson, came under fire from human rights campaigners for washing his hands of the matter by saying it was the business of the military review board.

In a statement on November 26, the Pat Finucane Centre said: "he is well aware that a senior member of the (British) government, John Speller MP, Secretary of State for the Armed Forces, sat in the army board and gave no direction of cabinet thinking on the case".

Saying the inclusion of Para General Michael Jackson on the Board was a damning indictment of the British government, the statement added: "Mandelson’s attempt to shift responsibility for the decision onto the military simply isn’t credible".

The Catholic Primate, Seán Brady accused Mandelson of "rubbing salt into the wound", but regarded it as a "disappointment".

Brady would like to be in a position to encourage his flock to join the British Colonial Crown Forces. Referring to the "police act", Brady said: "the police and armed services need the help of the community to help them do their job".
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Carthy family lash police report

THE 26-County police internal report into the shooting dead of John Carthy attempted to blacken the character of the Abbeylara, Co Longford man, according to relatives and a leading civil liberties spokesperson.

In addition the report by Chief Superintendent Culligan, was more concerned with preserving the "good name" of the Gardaí, and was contradictory and reversed established procedures for interviewing the police officers involved, according to Professor Dermot Walsh, Ireland’s leading expert on police procedures.

John Carthy was shot four times by Emergency Response Unit members of the 26-County police outside his home in Abbeylara, Granard on April 20 this year in highly controversial circum-stances.

The publication of the Culligan report has outraged the Carthy family who told RTÉ’s Primetime programme on November 28 that it had slighted John’s character and the characters of all those local people who co-operated with the police investigators.

Donnacha O’Conell of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties confirmed this and said he was appalled at the way John Carthy was "deconstructed" in the report. "Every negative impression that could be given was magnified. It was appalling, disgraceful", he said.

The Carthy family backed by their lawyer Peter Mullan and the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, have insisted that an independent public inquiry must be held into the Abbeylara killing.

The Primetime report said that none of the key questions raised by the killing had been addressed by the Garda report. Why had the ERU been deployed to deal with a man suffering from manic depression?

Why did the Calligan report contradict the report of the Pathologist, Professor John Harbison on the fourth and fatal bullet fired by the ERU?

The report admits that the Carthy family solicitor, Enda Geraghty should have been taken to see John Carthy. When he asked for a well-known Dublin lawyer , Michael Finucane this was also ignored. The police also failed to contact John Carthy’s medical specialist in Dublin until 15 minutes before he was shot dead.

In a damning critique of the interviews by the 26-County police, Prof. Dermot Walsh said that the proper procedure was to quiz those ERU members who fired their guns first and then the other Gardaí.

This guards against collusion and the rehearsal and co-ordination of answers.

Culligan did the opposite and interviewed the ERU men who fired the fatal shots – Mick Jackson and Aidan McCabe, and the scene commanders last.

Prof. Walsh also pointed out contradicting in the Calligan report itself in relation to the fourth and final shot. John Carthy, it claimed was 8.5 meters from the police when they fired on him first and because he continued to "march" him they fired three more shots.

Amazingly, the report then states he finally fell to the ground 8.5 metres from the police despite having "marched" a distance.

In relation to the critical issue of the fourth shot the pathologist found the bullet entered John Carthy’s back and exited a higher point on his chest, indicating he was not standing up or falling when it hit him. The 26-County police maintained he was still standing and "constituted a threat" when the fourth shot was fired, killing him.

Donnacha O’Connell said the killing could be in breech of the right to life contained in Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights which said that lethal force should only be used by state forces "where absolutely necessary".

The calling in of the FBI by the 26-County police commissioner, Pat Byrne, to comment on the report was a "cynical" move , he said, as the FBI were in breech of Article 2 by killing 80 people in the Waco siege in Texas several years ago.
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Showing their true colours

THE order by the British supremo in the Six Counties, Peter Mandleson, that the Union Jack flag must be flown over all Stormont ministry buildings on 17 days per year has helped to clear up some things.

It shows clearly that, regardless of the head of the Stormont department, the department is still under British control. What is more, it shows that they are under control directly from Westminster since an MP for an English constituency can give an order on what flags are flown over those departments. It also of course is a reminder as to who is funding the departments.

The two Stormont ministers most put out by the decision to fly the Union Jack on 17 days per year would be the two Provisional ministers, Martin McGuinness and Bairbre de Brún. In a radio interview in November Martin McGuinness objected to Peter Mandleson deciding to fly a flag over "his" (McGuinness’s) Department without his permission.

It is of course a British Department. But however put out they were, they continued to administer their own given sections of the British empire. In time, even the verbal objections may cease. To date the Union Jack flag has flown over all the new Stormont departments on two days – Remembrance Sunday (November 12) and the birthday of the Princes of Wales (November 14).

Some other dissident nationalists who might not be put out by the Union Jack at all would be the SDLP. They went out of their way to honour the British Army by attending Remembrance Sunday ceremonies on November 12. John Dallat, a Stormont SDLP member for East Derry defended his decision to attend a Remembrance day ceremony by talking of "parity of esteem" and "mutual respect". Remembrance Sunday is an annual exercise by the British State to sanitise the slaughter of millions of working-class men of several nationalities who were recruited or conscripted into the British Army to go and slaughter millions more like them in other countries.

Individuals whose relatives were killed in such actions are of course entitled to honour their dead in their own time but the Remembrance Sunday functions have a clear political purpose for the British State. The attendance of Irish nationalists at these functions only shows one thing: they are not Irish nationalists.
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